It’s been 7 years since Starfire set out on a plan as an organization to change the way we support people with developmental disabilities. Our goal was to build a model of support that aligned our impact with our original vision: to build richer social lives for people with developmental disabilities. How we’ve grown during this transition. It’s enough to write a book.

Today, we’ve gone from a place that supported people with disabilities on outings and in day programs, in groups, mostly set apart from the richness of ordinary community life, to a culture-building movement that puts people with developmental disabilities (as individual selves) at the very center of community life.

Reading back on our Strategic Plan set all those years ago now, it’s surprising to find how well each of these statements have held up over time. Not only has each line of this Plan made it through the transition out of 3…

Aaron Johannes-Rosenberg became familiar with LiveWorkPlay through social media. After many online conversations involving his work at the Spectrum Society for Community Living in Vancouver, Aaron became interested in how he might spend some time with LiveWorkPlay members for his thesis at Athabasca University, where he is part of the Masters of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies program. He recently visited LiveWorkPlay and hosted a focus group (see below).

Ann-Louise Davidson at Concordia university has a long history with LiveWorkPlay dating all the way back to the On Our Own Together projects in 2003-2004. She is now an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director in Educational Technology at Concordia University. As part of a team with researchers Stefanie Corona and Christine Hannum, Professor Davidson interviewed LiveWorkPlay members and produced videos for “Project Capabilities” which are now hosted on YouTube.

Really excited about one of our recent projects, a fund-raiser for TASH, which has been such an important player in the development of our organization and so many great folks that are important to us. We give TASH a lot of credit, and it is well deserved, so we were excited to be able to help out when asked to participate in a webinar series. Here is more information about the seven part “Dancing with Community” webinar series, which will be available to all for at least the next month or two. I think these are really worthwhile and am particularly excited about some great new voices who were involved in their production, as well as some more experienced folks who just jumped right in and helped out so graciously.

“The match is everything. When the right people show up in a person’s life, most of what he or she needs will happen. Ninety percent of what works is finding the right people and making sure they stay a while.” (David Pitonyak)

You’ve no doubt seen the recent media coverage about Community Living British Columbia (CLBC). One issue that’s getting a lot of attention is the question of moving people out of group homes into less costly shared living situations, and whether individuals and families are being included in the decision-making and provided with enough information to make informed choices about their living arrangements. CLBC has acknowledged that there are problems in the system that need addressing, and while we don’t speak for CLBC or for any other service provider, we can say that we are very proud of Spectrum’s shared living services and our incredible team of caregivers. We are concerned…